Pages

Friday, June 29, 2012

A Lesson to Young Journalists: "It Takes Two to Lie. One to Lie and One to Listen"

I'm not a journalist. Let's make this very clear. If this isn't the first post you have read here, then you already know that. So, like you, I just read news articles/watch TV and consume everything. So, remember, I'm just like you. We are, like, the same exact person. More or less. In the grand scheme of things. Oh, by the way, don't forget to run the dishwasher later.

That being said, this troubles me. Well, not so much troubles, just kind of annoys me.

Lisa Halverstadt is a reporter for the Arizona Republic and Arizona Central, and one of the main beat writers for the Coyotes in Arizona. She tweets A LOT about the Coyotes situation. She is a journalist, so as a citizen you intend for her to give you all of the important details of a story without commentary, etc. She does a good job of this. She really does. She's also a walking contradiction. Well, on Twitter at least, where it matters.

First, this "tim larsom" character has terrible grammar and doesn't understand punctuation. Also, his statement doesn't make any damn sense, so it's a wonder why Lisa even responded.

Second, what Lisa says is fine, that is what she is supposed to say. She's a journalist. Journalist are meant to be impartial. Ipso facto.

Until you look at her Twitter profile picture.

That appears to be Jobing.com Arena in the background, home of the Phoenix Coyotes. Does this say she is a fan. No, not exactly (but her bias is somewhatobvious). Maybe she just likes the arena. Maybe, except Jobing.com hosts maybe three other events each month aside from Coyotes games. So, yeah, not likely. Can one even "like" an arena? I "like" Sprint Center, but I'm not going to have pictures taken outside of it unless it represents something more than a pretty glass building. Jobing Arena represents the Coyotes because it has nothing else. Sprint Center represents misinformation and taxes (as of this date) because, well, it was built solely on misinformation and taxes. The White House represents Democracy and the president, etc. The Arc de Triomphe represents Napolean's ego and French victories. The Gateway Arch represents...the wonders of steel...? It's pretty simple.

Look, we all know today's world is different than it was ten, twenty, thirty, forty plus years ago. Journalists, TV news broadcasters and presenters, news people, they all have personalities now. You can talk to them on Facebook and Twitter and they sometimes do dumb shit and everyone flips out. They are people. Real human people. They, of course, in some sense, are also still held up to the high esteem of journalist like Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, who earned the trust and respect of the nation because they fought for the real story and asked questions (and possibly because they were old and white). It is what it is. Just thought I would point it out. But, don't mind me. Move along. Remember, the dishwasher.